Real Madrid went top of the La Liga table on Saturday thanks to a 2-1 win over 10 man Elche, while Sevilla and Atletico Madrid kept up with the pace…but Barcelona continued to drift.
Vinicius has come of age
Marcelo skippered Los Blancos to a hard-fought 2-1 win away to Elche and it wasn’t always pretty. But his 21-year-old Brazilian compatriot, Vinicius Junior, was a shining light as he scored both goals to see off Real’s determined hosts. He opened the scoring with a sweet 22nd-minute strike and, after Elche had gone down to ten men when Ral Guti saw red, Vinicius added a second on 73 minutes to make the points safe. Real still had some work to do when Elche’s substitute Pere Milla halved the deficit with five minutes remaining.
The hosts put in a big performance to push Los Blancos hard, losing the shot counts narrowly, by 13 to 17 and four to five on target, but Vinicus had the star quality which made the difference. His strike partner Karim Benzema leads the race for the Golden Boot with nine goals, but Vinicius has climbed to second place on seven.
He has scored nine in 14 games in all competitions, a big step up from his six in 47 appearances last season and he’s part of the deadliest duo in European football on current form.
Barca’s troubles run deep
While there are plenty of smiles at the Santiago Bernabeu, up at the Camp Nou there are fewer reasons to be cheerful. The Blaugrana could only earn a point against lowly Alaves on Saturday in the first match since the departure of head coach Ronald Koeman. That made it three league games without a win for the Catalans and they drifted to ninth in the table, eight points behind the leaders.
After failing to make any inroads in the first half, top scorer Memphis Depay gave Barca a lead early in the second with a superb long-range goal. But the lead lasted just three minutes before Alaves forward Luis Rioja rounded Ter Stegen to score and, despite dominating, the Blaugrana couldn’t break through a second time. And there was more bad news for the Catalans as the recently returned Sergio Aguero went off injured late in the first half.
Barcelona need to sort themselves out, and President Joan Laporta has indicated that he has opened talks with former playing legend Xavi, currently a manager at Qatari side Al Sadd. In the meantime, ‘B’ team coach Sergi Barjuan is in charge of first-team matters.
This could be a long season for the Barca fans and the very latest La Liga 2021 betting odds have all but given up on the Blaugrana, with The Madrid clubs and Sevilla the only three clubs in single figure odds. Los Blancos are odds on to win the 2021/22 title and while they won’t have it all their own way it’s beginning to look like Barcelona won’t be a threat.
Sevilla are the real deal
Having stayed in the title race right to the end of the 2020/21 season Sevilla are up with the leaders again, alongside Real Madrid and Sociedad on 24 points. Julen Lopetegui’s side won their seventh league game of the season thanks to a goal, either side of halftime, in a comfortable afternoon against Osasuna at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan Stadium.
The visitors did make a bright start though and almost went ahead as Darko Brasanac headed against the post, but Diego Carlos headed home a corner to give Sevilla the lead and Lucas Ocampos doubled the lead before the hour mark.
Next up for Los Sevillanos is a crunch Champions League Group G tie at home to Lille. The Spaniards have drawn all three of their European games so far and sit in second place, four points behind leaders Salzburg and a point ahead of Lille and Wolfsburg.
Atleti’s title defence is back on track
Los Rojiblancos faced in-form Real Betis in a Sunday afternoon fixture at the Wanda Metropolitano and they were in need of a victory to keep pace with the leaders, after drawing their last two games. Yannick Carrasco opened the scoring with a sweetly hit shot into the top left corner and Atleti’s lead was doubled when Betis centre back German Pezzella put through his own goal. Joao Felix rounded off a great night for Los Rojiblancos as the 3-0 victory took them up to fourth place on 22 points.
Diego Simeone’s side is in Champions League action again this week when they face Liverpool. Here at SBOTOP we’ll be previewing that mouth-watering tie tomorrow but, in the meantime, with all the big La Liga 2021 results in, all that remains on Sunday night is for the Basque Country derby to be resolved.
A win for Sociedad would return them to the top, but for now that is Real Madrid’s place to lose.
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